Two-Hundred Years
by HogwartsDreamer113
Summary: *SPOILERS FOR CLOCKWORK PRINCESS* Jem and Tessa have lived a long life together, but Jem is mortal. Remembering his life as he dies, he sees Will again, and for the first time in two-hundred years, they talk to each other about Tessa and their close friendship with each other.


**Author's note: Just a little one-shot I thought up after reading Clockwork Princess. Hope you enjoy reading as much I enjoyed writing it. :)**

**Named after the song "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri. I just thought "Two-Hundred Years" would be more fitting. :) **

**Disclaimer: I **_**wish **_**I owned Tessa, Jem, and Will, but sadly, I do not. **

**Two-Hundred Years**

_London Institute, 2078_

Jem Carstairs was not, by any means, afraid of death. Even two-hundred years ago, when he was dying from that terrible, crippling drug, did he ever fear dying. Now, as he lay in his bed, a frail, ninety – or two-hundred and seventeen, one could say – year-old man, he was nearly ready to leave this world for real.

His and Tessa's children and grandchildren had wanted him to abstain for Shadowhunting due to his old age, but Jem could not do so. It was in his blood, just as it was in theirs. Tessa, his darling, beautiful Tessa, understood. Although she didn't appear to be much older than twenty, she had lived as long as he had, and knew how much he loved doing what he was literally born to do, so she always insisted he'd come along on their expeditions, and no on argued, as Tessa Herondale-Carstairs's words were law.

Despite her power, Tessa could not protect Jem from every danger in the world. A week ago, Jem was badly injured in a fight with a demon. The injury itself wouldn't have too badly damaged a younger Shadowhunter, but a mortal body such as Jem's, whether it was ninety or two-hundred and seventeen, could not go on forever, and his was no longer able to support him after such an injury, and his organs were slowly failing him. As it was, Shadowhunters weren't meant to live very long, and Jem of course was already a rare case.

The past few days, Jem had been in a coma, and it had been a miracle that he had woken up at all. However, consciousness did not always mean survival. Jem was weak, and all he could manage to do was talk to the relatives who came to visit him. Silent Brothers came as well, men who Jem had known when he himself had lived in the Silent City. They bared the news that Jem could not survive his injuries, that his body was not strong enough for the required healing runes. He had only an hour or so left.

Exhausted, Jem only wanted Tessa in the room with him. Her beautiful gray eyes were filled with sadness, and Jem was reminded of Will's death nearly a century and a half before. "Magnus once said to me that the first death of a lover is the hardest, and the rest become easier," she said softly, "but for me, that is not true."

Jem reached out for her hand, and she took it, "My darling Tessa," he began, his voice soft and weak. "I wish Will and I could have both spent eternity with you, but of course that isn't possible. Yet, I am glad we had the time we did."

"As am I." Tessa replied, squeezing his hand gently.

"I know now that becoming a Silent Brother was the best for us. First, Will was with you when I couldn't be, and seventy years later, I was there for you after he was gone. Now, it is nearly time for me to leave you as well, as much as I don't want to."

Tessa sighed. "Yes it is, but I will be alright. I'll miss you as much as I miss Will, but I'll be just fine. You needn't worry about me."

Jem smiled. "I know, Tessa. I've always known." He paused, gazing at his violin that lay on a shelf a short distance away. "My violin. Will you play it for me?"

Tessa nodded, retrieved the violin, and sat back down again. Jem would have wanted to play for _her_ but his arthritic hands hadn't allowed it in years. Decades before that, however, Jem had taught Tessa how to play it herself, and she was nearly as good as he was now, so listening to her play was the next best thing.

"I have loved you for two-hundred years." Jem said in Mandarin.

She replied in the same tongue. "And I'll love you for Two thousand more. Until the end of eternity."

Then she began to play. Just as Jem had played the story of her life with Will years ago in 1937, Tessa played the story of her life with himself, Jem. As she played, Jem remembered the night they met and their kisses they had shared when their love was still young and inexperienced. He remembered their first engagement, and how happy they had been. He saw the pain Will had suffered, trying to keep his _parabatai _and Tessa happy. The memory of having to leave them was the most painful for Jem, but his remembrance of being a Silent Brother passed quickly, and soon he saw himself, as Jem, and Tessa on the Blackfriars Bridge. He saw himself proposing a second time. He watched their wedding, before which they had simply decided to add Carstairs onto her name, instead of dropping the Herondale, making her Tessa Herondale-Carstairs. It was representative of her, they both had said. He revisited the time they had met Jace Herondale, at the New York institute. He had been so much like Will, but yet not, the most startling difference was his fair hair that contrasted so differently from Will's. By his side was Clary, a descendent of Henry and Charlotte, a vampire named Simon, and Alec and Isabelle Lighwood, descendants of Gabriel and Cecily. Magnus had been there as well, particularly close to the Lighwood boy, who, Jem noted, had Will and Cecily's black hair and blue eyes. He saw the birth of their first daughter, Charlotte, then their second, Elizabeth, and finally their son William, and those of _their_ children and grandchildren. He watched himself and Tessa grow old together. Well, Jem grew old, with his hair turned silvery gray once more, not because of the _yin fen_, but because of old age. Tessa, however, looked just as youthful and beautiful as ever. Finally, he saw the two of them as they were now. He gazed up with her with loving tenderness in his eyes. He hated to stop her sweet, melodic violin playing, but he didn't have much of a choice. He _had_ to tell her, and he had to do it soon, for he didn't know how much longer he could last.

"Tessa?"

She ceased her playing. "Yes, Jem?"

"You do know we'll see each other again, whether it's because of the wheel of life, or at Will's river. And in the meantime, remember I have always loved you, as has Will."

Tess nodded, understanding this was goodbye. Not forever, but for a while. "As I love you. Now go. It's alright, Jem. Go to Will." She closed her eyes and began to play again. Letting her music fill his ears, Jem allowed his own eyes to close and took his final breath.

* * *

The river was like none that Jem had ever seen. The water was pure and transparent, and Jem could look down and see himself. Not ninety-year-old Jem or two-hundred and seventeen year old Jem, with his curly black hair and dark brown eyes. On the bank beside him, prairie grasses waved peacefully in the breeze, and the braches of willow trees reached down and swept the water gently like a broom might sweep the floor. Song birds soared gracefully from tree to tree communicating with each other using shrill tweets and whistles. A white-tailed deer had let her guard down and lowered her head to lap up the cool, refreshing water, but froze suddenly and darted away when she saw Jem, as if he were a wolf, not a teenage boy. Then, looking down the bank, Jem saw a familiar face. Sitting on a swinging bench, dangling his feet in the water and grinning broadly was Will. Jem put on a smile as grand as his _parabatai's _and jogged over to him.

"You were right, Will." He told him. "About the river."

Will laughed. "It's been two-hundred years since we've really talked to each other with you as Jem and not Brother Zachariah, and that's the first thing you say to me?"

Jem grinned. "Is 'I missed you' a better fit then?"

"Considering I missed you as well, yes it is." Will replied. He then embraced Jem in a giant brotherly hug.

"For what?" asked Jem, breaking away from him.

"For taking care of Tessa."

Jem smiled. "I could say the same to you. You _did _take care of her first. Although, I don't think Tessa needs to be taken care of. She's outlived the both of us!"

Will laughed again, his blue eyes twinkling. "That's true!" He paused, still smiling. "We make a remarkable trio, don't we? You and I just _had _to fall in love with the same girl. We're just lucky her heart contains enough love for us both."

Jem was listening, but his eyes were focused elsewhere, on Will's chest, directly above the heart, to be precise. "Yes," he agreed, "and we're lucky to have each other, as _parabatai. _In fact, look."

Will looked down at his own chest at his parabatai rune. It was not white and faded as it had been for decades, but as bright and clear as when he and Jem had received them two-hundred years previous. The grin on his face widened. "After two-hundred years of separation, we are reunited," said Jem, "we are _parabatai _again."

Will continued to stare at both his and Jem's _parabatai _runes in disbelief. "For seventy years, I have waited for you here, just as promised, and watched you and Tessa live your lives together, and I wanted so badly to join you, but I could not. I missed my –" he corrected himself with a smile, "our Tessa, and my _parabatai_. I now have my _parabatai _back, which of course is very relieving, but a part of my heart is still missing. I'd never with the fate of death on Tessa, but at the same time, it pains me to think of her being alone."

Jem placed his hand gently on his friend's shoulder, a solemn look in his eyes. "She won't be alone. As I aged, I made her swear she would not leave our descendants. After you passed on, Tessa tended to roam around. Seeing her loved ones die one after another is hard on her, yet everyone needs love. I believe I have convinced her to stay connected to the Carstairs family as well as Jace Herondale and the rest of you descendants."

Will smiled at the mention of Jace's name. "Jace Herondale. He's quite like me, don't you think? And not a speck of Wayland as he first suspected himself to be."

Jem couldn't help but smile as well. "Yes," he agreed, "a Herondale through and through. But that's beside my point. My point is Tess will be alright. We both will see her again someday, and that day will come across the river separating the dead from the living." He glanced across the river separating the dead from the living." He glanced across the river, and then back at Will. "I'm ready to wait for her there. Are you?"

Waiting. Will had spent a great deal of the past Two-hundred years waiting for various things. One-hundred and forty years in fact, he had spent simply waiting for Jem, because somehow, even when he was a Silent Brother, Will had known he would come. Even as he and Jem stood there on the river's bank, Will knew they both would wait an eternity for Tessa, the missing piece of both their hearts. But here was not the place. It was time to cross the river.

"I am." Without another word, the two of them linked arms and waded across the river.


End file.
